Finally Caught Up, Short Vacation, and 2017 LE Status….

Three topics to cover with this blog post. My apologies if this is a bit long, but I need to cover a lot of recent topics. It’s best to simply combine!

We are finally caught up with our Signature Line queue! I’m sure that most of you heard that one of our most critical machines went down in the late summer which backed us up a whole lot. The machine was not running for 2 weeks. Then another week to the fix it, and the DC Pen Show added a 4th week of delays. So at the beginning of August, we were 4 weeks behind! The nature of custom-made pens truly does not lend itself to rushing or trying to work too much faster than we already do (which is a good pace to begin with). Working faster than our comfort zone mostly leads to silly mistakes. So rather than rush, our entire team was working longer hours and some weekends from the beginning of August until now. We were able to increase our productivity without silly rushing and as of today we are caught up completely! After being a bit stressed through this process, it feels good to be finally caught up! So we are caught up with our Signature Line, but we do still have a good amount of repairs that have been backlogged. I have been in touch with each of these customers, and we will be full force on those repairs next week. So if you have a pen in for a repair with us, you will be hearing from us most likely before the end of October. For all people involved with our delays, I have done my best to be sure that you have received some kind of update every 1-2 weeks. I hope those involved feel that these updates have been adequate and timely to explain the delays.

So in the end – Lesson Learned and more machinery is on the way! I’ve done all of my research, and I’m about to sign papers on some new machinery so that this kind of situation can be handled in the future without problems, as well as increase our overall productivity.

2. Today (Wednesday), I was able to send out photos and tracking information on the very last pens that have been delayed! It felt so so very good, and I feel that a huge weight is off my shoulders considering more than 2 months of being behind! Due to it being very sorely needed, I am taking Thursday and Friday as vacation this week, and will return on Monday or Tuesday of next week. If I am slow with emails, you’ll know why.

3. We have understandably received a lot of emails lately about the 2017 LE Group Buy Pen. This pen is an annual tradition with our company, and is the only time that you’ll see an Edison Pen discounted in any way. Considering our machine issues outlined above, I’m sure that no one is surprised that there will not be a 2017 LE Group Buy pen. Instead, we will do our best to do a 2018 LE Group Buy pen in early 2018, and then we will try to do another in 2018 late in the year. So barring something unforeseen, we will do two LE Group Buy Pens in 2018.

I think that I’ve covered it all! If anyone has questions, please reach out!

The problem was a servo motor. This is my reaction when it was finally fixed in August! While this felt great, we then had a lot work to get caught up!

Comments

nick valadez

Oct 19 2017 at 3:57 pm

Hi Brian, i am a newbie to the hobbie but i could tell that your pen was the first i knew i must have as a special piece for my collection and my Edison is always in my rotation, i love it! My question is what is the group buy pen? and can i be a pat of it? Thank you Brian……Your fan, Nick Valadez

Hi Nick. Each year, we do a Limited Edition “Group Buy” Signature Line pen. Since we make these assembly-line style, we can reduce the price. It’s the only time that you’ll see an Edison Pen discounted. If you subscribe to our blog, you’ll get notifications of these projects in your inbox. Have a great day!

Dave L

Oct 20 2017 at 1:45 am

Great job on getting all that work done! You sure do need a vacation, and maybe even the rest of the team. I’m surprised that was your reaction when it was fixed! Mine would be jumping for joy ;). I’m glad to hear that everything is running smooth once more.